US ‘dismayed’ by Israel’s new settlements in Jerusalem
The White House has said it is dismayed by Israel’s decision to build new settler homes in Jerusalem saying it makes it harder to kick-start the peace talks.
In China, Obama’s hosts show no signs of budging
 President Obama and his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, reach out to shake hands after their news conference in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People. The two leaders read 15-minute statements but, unusually, took no questions. (Ng Han Guan / Associated Press / November 17, 2009)
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U.K.’s Standing Declines on Corruption Index
The revelation earlier this year that members of the U.K. parliament milked
the expense-claims system made a laughing stock of British politicians. A report out Tuesday showing the U.K. slipped to an 11-year low on a corruption index indicates the scandal caused more than humiliation.
US fed up with troops dying to prop up Karzai
A long and dusty road ahead…an Afghan shoe polisher takes a break and reads a book in Kabul Photo: AFP
IT SEEMS that Hamid Karzai just can’t be trusted on his own.
UK prime minister promises commitment, demands reform in Afghanistan
London, England (CNN) — In a major speech on Afghanistan, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Friday that Britain “cannot, must not, and will not walk away” from its mission there.
But Brown also warned that reform in Afghanistan is necessary if British troops are to remain.
“I am not prepared to put the lives of British men and women in harm’s way for a government that does not stand up against corruption,” Brown said.
The prime minister spoke three days after an Afghan National Police officer opened fire on the British troops who were training him, killing five British soldiers and wounding six others.
Their deaths brought to 93 the number of British service personnel killed in Afghanistan this year, Brown said. Britain has 9,000 troops in the country.
Brown said the fight in Afghanistan must continue because the main terrorist threat facing Britain comes from both Afghanistan and Pakistan. He said three-quarters of all terrorist plots originate from the two countries’ shared border region.
Video: Soldiers die in ambush Video: Afghan police training struggle Video: U.N. to beef up security
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“Our mission must not fail,” Brown said. “It is not easy, the choices are not simple, there is no strategy that is without danger and risk, but that is the responsibility of leadership of government and of our armed forces — to do what is necessary, however difficult, to keep the British people safe.
“We cannot, must not, and will not walk away,” Brown said.
Brown put pressure on Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who recently won a second term after an election widely marred by fraud, to clean up his new government. Karzai’s main challenger dropped out of the vote because of alleged corruption.
“People are right to ask whether our soldiers should be placed in harm’s way if the government of Afghanistan is unable or unwilling to meet its obligations to the Afghan people,” Brown said.
Brown said he has told Karzai to make a “contract with the Afghan people” against which they can measure his success. Brown said he also proposed that Karzai enact a new anti-corruption law that allows for investigation and prosecution.
Karzai promised to take “decisive action against corruption,” the prime minister said.
Greek, Irish votes reduce risks to wider Europe
Peter Apps, Political Risk Correspondent – 06.10.2009
Greece’s Socialists won a greater than expected landslide election victory on Oct.4, giving them a comfortable majority to push forward an economic programme based on economic stimulus and tax rises for the rich.
On Oct.3, Irish voters overwhelmingly endorsed the EU’s Lisbon reform treaty, a major hurdle for Prime Minister Brian Cowen whose government would likely have fallen immediately had the treaty been rejected for a second time.
The two countries have been the hardest hit in the eurozone by the global financial crisis, prompting some to fear they could drag down the wider bloc particularly if domestic political stalemates stymied policy-making.
“In Greece, the election results mean we will have a stronger government than its predecessor,” said IHS Global Insight Europe analyst Grace Annan.
Either an inconclusive result in Greece or coalition failure in Ireland would have raised the spectre of a policy hiatus that could have left the countries too politically paralysed to tackle their economic problems.
That could have left Europe’s stronger economies, primarily Germany, footing the bill.
Greek stocks rose outperformed other European exchanges and bond yields tightened relative to German debt, with investors cheered by the thought of a government with a firm mandate.
“The surprise of a strong majority is what is driving the market higher today,” said Alpha Finance analyst Manousos Stathoudakis in Athens. “Longer term, this could help public finances and the stock market.”
Ratings agency Standard and Poor’s said policy choices by the new government could affect Greece’s sovereign rating in either direction, warning that further budgetary slippage could be negative but a “clear, credible and sustainable agenda to reinvigorate reforms” could eventually benefit the rating.
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